Welcome to Ordinary Times 3.0

We are pleased as punch with the new look and once we had it together we couldn’t wait to release it. That said, it was born out of necessity and not a displeasure with the existing design which we liked and still like. There were a couple issues that the new site resolves.

Why We Did It

The first is manageability. I am not a webpage designer and the things that made the old design great were often the things that I couldn’t manage. It was mostly designed by CK Macleod, who is a WordPress programmer professionally, and the rest held over from Erik Kain. Both of these people are far better with websites than I am, which created a problem when I took over: I couldn’t adequately maintain the site. There was always a fear that something could break and I would be completely and entirely unable to fix it. It existed in a black box of code that I couldn’t read. I could run a WordPress site, but not this one. And considering I was the most qualified person to do any of this, that needed to change.

The second issue was hosting As you have picked up on, we’ve had a lot of hosting issues in recent years. The intricate nature of the WordPress installation that it was running on was such that it was taking up too much in the way of resources. Hosts either didn’t want to deal with it and wouldn’t help us or in a couple cases actually canceled or declined our business unless we were willing to get on a plan that was (or should have been) far more what our site could justify. The database on the old design was about 1.6gb in size and the new one is about 850mb. The size of the old one could be brought down, but only using tools I was afraid to use because if something went wrong I couldn’t fix it.

We’d had the idea that we would just design this site and keep it in our back pocket until such a time as we found a new host or the existing site just collapsed. An insurance policy. As I started to design it, put it together, and see what it looked like I decided I didn’t really want to wait. Partially for that reason, and partially because it meant maintaining two website designs instead of one. I asked the editorial team what they thought, and they were on board.

What We Did

This part was tricky. There was no one aspect of the previous site that was causing problems. To use FastComet (our host from December 2017 to July or so of last year) benchmarks, their top-tier shared hosting plan did not allow for databases above 1024mb and on the old design ours was roughly 1600. The bandwidth limit on their unlimited bandwidth plan was 90gb per month and a site with our traffic should have been using about 40gb and instead we were anywhere from 70-100gb, which is less about database size than site design. So if the database is a problem and the design is a problem, what do we do?

Well, new design, new database. While my PHP skills are not great, one thing I can do is databases. I even have experience with database manipulation on WordPress specifically. I had to upgrade Hit Coffee from WP 1.5 to 3.7 and there were no tools to do so. I basically had to go into the database, find the data I wanted, and put it into the database of the new site. I created a command sequence of 38 steps and it was done. So this project was going to be like that one but on a far more massive scale. But the short version is that I created a new site, I wrote the command sequences to transfer the specific data that I wanted (most notably post and comment content), and then left the rest behind. The longer version involves 213 queries accounting for all of the data we needed without bringing in unnecessary data or worse, data that might bring over some of the system complexity that I was deliberately leaving behind.

On top of all of that, I had to put together an ambitious website and replicate as many of the features as possible.

What This Means

Unless something goes dramatically wrong and I have to revert back to the old one until I fix it, it means that this is the new site! Unfortunately, some of the features of the site were inevitably lost in the process. Some we’ll get back, some we probably won’t. The good news, though, is that by having a site that is manageable we can start making improvements. Michael Cain has been tasked with bringing back as many of the old features as possible. We both have clone sites that we can do all manner of experimentation with without disrupting site operations. We may be starting from behind, but we now have the ability to move forward.

And hopefully, the new look will make visiting the site a more enjoyable experience.

Who Helped

A lot of people helped, but I want to call out a few people in particular. The first is the editorial team. They have just been amazing since I have taken over and have really stepped up over the last couple of weeks. Especially Andrew Donaldson, who has more or less taken point on the processing and scheduling of posts so that I could focus on the backend stuff. Second, Michael Cain has agreed to learn more about WordPress and work on the site features. While his work has not been implemented yet, that he is working on it allowed me to move forward with more basic site functionality and design. And lastly, CK Macleod who left the site a long time ago but has been there for all of the questions I had about the site’s previous design and WordPress more generally. Maybe I could have gotten through all of this without him and maybe not, but if not for him we would not be at our launch date. He also remains responsible for many of the site’s features, from Ten Second News to image handling.

And, of course, you all. While CK and Erik did an amazing job programming the site, the important thing has always been the content itself, both in the posts and the comments. The site is mostly a way to facilitate that. You made this a site worth devoting a lot of time to.

What Now?

Now we see what went wrong. For instance, load times appear to be very slow. This happened on some of the test-runs and self-corrected, and in others did not self-correct. We’ll have to see what happens there. If it doesn’t self-correct, I will keep working and plugging away at it until I see why it’s happening on this version and not (most of) the other version(s).

I should have had more faith that some of the immediate issues would self-resolve. I think I was sensitive on this one in particular because I lost about four hours trying to track down something inexplicably adding five seconds to every load page.Report

Pixilation is usually a product of the image being used. Which is to say that it’s a quality control issue – the sort that you get when you have a bunch of volunteers and you restrict image usage to public domain and the most obvious feature images.

That said, feature images selection among the things I would really like to improve on this site for a variety of reasons. So you might see some improvement in the future.Report

I have a years long tradition at this point of hating every new revamp of the site. So, since we have many traditionalists here, i’ll stick with that. Of course give it half a day and i wont’ be able to remember what the old site looked like. Thanks to all for all the hard work.Report

They say you should deliver criticism in a compliment sandwich. I like the overall look, the thin grey text against a slightly lighter grey background is borderline unreadable, and I’m happy that the loading speed is improved.Report

The new format really looks nice, contemporary, and slick. I’m getting no pixellation, no particular loadtime delays, and the ease of the new site is as strong as the old one. Getting something like this done was a goal I’d had for my own editorship and it was well beyond my own abilities — I am chuffed and proud and happy for you that you got this done. Three cheers for EIC Will Truman!Report

The EU passed some sort of reg that I think really disincentivizes remembering stuff. If it seems like a lot of websites have gotten bad about that lately, that’s why (WordPress in particular has gotten really bad. I seem to have to log in once every day or two now).

There are plugins and such and I have my eye on one that would do this and a lot more. I can’t quite get it to work, though, and would need to raise the funds to buy it.Report

Yeah, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (often referred to as “the right to be forgotten”). It also includes their rule requiring sites in the EU or targeting residents of the EU to put up notices about the use of HTTP cookies. One of the consequences has been software that is used in the EU is starting to avoid any casual retention of data that could be considered personal information.Report

Okay, here’s an odd one… When hovering over the icon for the right sidebar, with the sidebar collapsed, the pop-up explanation says “Expand Sidebar”. With the sidebar expanded the icon changes appropriately, but the pop-up still says “Expand Sidebar”.Report

Well, sort of. The <code> tags survive. How that renders is a local decision. Converting spaces to non-breaking spaces makes it possible to build a table, but it’s tedious. I may be the only one here who cares about little tables.Report

I like the new look a lot. It looks good on desktop and is especially good on phone screens. The text and background colours & fonts are easy for me to read.

One thing I liked about the old design was how easily you could track down what a comment was replying to, even when there were lots of comments between the two. Too soon to tell whether this will be the case in the new design. The thread here doesn’t have a lot of mini essays and counteressays…Report

Working on it. I’m a fan of CK’s comment boxes where you could pop up the full comment text, jump to the comment in context, jump to the comment it was in reply to in context, jump to the top of the post, or access the author’s comment archive. Making them play nice with the new theme is more work, on more levels, than I thought it would be. (That’s a criticism of me, not CK.)Report

If there is one lost feature that I could get back, it would be this. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how we’re going to be able to get the universal Reply-To back, but it is among the highest priorities.Report

OK, still digging the look and feel, but I can’t seem to get into the dashboard to see my submitted guest post. After savagely dunking on myself for neglecting it, I decided to be the change I wanted to see by editing it, and alas.Report

I like the new look a lot in general. Not so crazy about the Commentariat section as opposed to the State of Discussion. In particular, there’s no indication of what a comment is in reply-to. I had gotten into a habit of mostly following convos via SoD and that doesn’t really work now.Report

Yeah, that’s by far the biggest loss. One of the reasons I brought Michael Cain in on this is I figured he would be one of the people most motivated to getting it working again. Seems like he’s making progress. So… I think we’ll get there.Report

GTK. Not really related to the site redesign but something I’ve been wanting to ask about for some time now. You have the checkboxes for “Notify of new posts” and “Notify of follow-up comments”. The latter hasn’t worked for me for the last year or two. Did that get axed for bandwidth issues or some other reason or is it peculiar to me?Report

Update: While writing this comment I got a wild hair and went to the Subscription Management page and unfollowed all the old post comments pn the theory that I mau be over-subscribed. They went back to May of 2012, so now we know when I started interacting here. That would be about right when my wife was finishing chemo.Report

Update2: Having screwed around with the WordPress comment subscription page I seem to have broken it completely (for me). Now I don’t get any notifications at all. I didn’t receive any New Post emails yesterday (2/26) despite making a couple comments and checking both boxes.Report

Possibly a question you have answered several times, but I loved the “Go to New Comments” feature/ That way I could follow the different subthreads without having to read every comment gain every time.

If that is not possible to have, then perhaps chronological but numbered comments, like in Crooked Timber, might workReport

It can take me a bit to get used to changes that I in fact like, so I waited a few days to see if my initial impressions were durable, or if just reactive. Reviewing the comments at this point, I think they are all positive, maybe with a quibble here or there.

My reaction, both initial and considered, is that the overall effect of this layout is too busy and redundant. Three columns packed with information don’t give the eye any natural place to go. Additionally, post titles can appear in up to 4 different places at the same (not counting the comment section).

At first all this made it all but impossible for my old, damaged brain to navigate. Now I have learned where to focus to filter out some of the extra information, but it is still difficult. It really is an access issue for me, and I suspect for other readers, both current and potential.

I hope that as you continue to work on the site you will consider changes that produce a cleaner layout. Thanks for all you do here. I really value OT and hope I will be able to continue to participate.Report

Better late than never, I love the new site thanks for all your hard work Will and the editors behind the scenes. One thing every time I see “Commentareum” I suddenly have Metallica playing in my headReport

Religious Institutions. Religious institutions may resume services subject to the following conditions, which apply to churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, interfaith centers, and any other space, including rented space, where religious or faith gatherings are held: 1. Indoor religious gatherings are limited to no more than ten people. 2. Outdoor religious gatherings of up to 250 people are allowed. Outdoor services may be held on any outdoor space the religious institution owns, rents, or reserves for use. 3. All attendees at either indoor or outdoor services must maintain appropriate social distancing of six feet and wear face masks or facial coverings at all times. 4. There shall be no consumption of food or beverage of any kind before, during, or after religious services, including food or beverage that would typically be consumed as part of a religious service. 5. Collection plates or receptacles may not be passed to or between attendees. 6. There should be no hand shaking or other physical contact between congregants before, during, or after religious services. Attendees shall not congregate with other attendees on the property where religious services are being held before or after services. Family members or those who live in the same household or who attend a service together in the same vehicle may be closer than six feet apart but shall remain at least six feet apart from any other persons or family groups. 7. Singing is permitted, but not recommended. If singing takes place, only the choir or religious leaders may sing. Any person singing without a mask or facial covering must maintain a 12-foot distance from other persons, including religious leaders, other singers, or the congregation. 8. Outdoor or drive-in services may be conducted with attendees remaining in their vehicles. If utilizing parking lots for either holding for religious services or for parking for services held elsewhere on the premises, religious institutions shall ensure there is adequate parking available. 9. All high touch areas, (including benches, chairs, etc.) must be cleaned and decontaminated after every service. 10. Religious institutions are encouraged to follow the guidelines issued by Governor Hogan.

“There shall be no consumption of food or beverage of any kind before, during, or after religious services, including food or beverage that would typically be consumed as part of a religious service,” the order says in a section delineating norms and restrictions on religious services.

The consumption of the consecrated species at Mass, at least by the celebrant, is an integral part of the Eucharistic rite. Rules prohibiting even the celebrating priest from receiving the Eucharist would ban the licit celebration of Mass by any priest.

CNA asked the Howard County public affairs office to comment on how the rule aligns with First Amendment religious freedom and free exercise rights.

Howard County spokesman Scott Peterson told CNA in a statement that "Howard County has not fully implemented Phase 1 of Reopening. We continue to do an incremental rollout based on health and safety guidelines, analysis of data and metrics specific to Howard County and in consultation with our local Health Department."

"With this said," Peterson added, "we continue to get stakeholder feedback in order to fully reopen to Phase 1."

The executive order also limits attendance at indoor worship spaces to 10 people or fewer, limits outdoor services to 250 socially-distanced people wearing masks, forbids the passing of collection plates, and bans handshakes and physical contact between worshippers.

In contrast to the 10-person limit for churches, establishments listed in the order that do not host religious services are permitted to operate at 50% capacity.

In the early days of the Coronavirus epidemic, there were hopes that the disease could be treated with a compound called hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). HCQ is a long-established inexpensive medicine that is widely used to treat malaria. It also has uses for treating rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. There had been some indications that HCQ could treat SARS virus infections by attacking the spike proteins that coronaviruses use to latch onto cells and inject their genetic material. Initial small-scale studies of the drug on COVID-19 patients indicated some positive effect (in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin). President Trump, in March, promoted HCQ as a game-changer and is apparently taking it as a prophylaxis after potentially being exposed by White House staff.

Initial claims of the efficacy of this therapy were a perfect illustration of why we base decisions on scientific studies and not anecdotes. By late March, Twitter was filled with stories of "my cousin's mother's former roommate was on death's door and took this therapy and miraculously recovered". But such stories, even assuming they are true, mean nothing. With COVID-19, we know that seriously ill people reach an inflection point where they either recover or die. If they died while taking the HCQ regimen, we don't hear from them because...they died. And if they recover without taking it, we don't hear from them because...they didn't take it. Our simian brains have evolved to think that correlation is causation. But it isn't. If I sacrificed a goat in every COVID-19 patient's room, some of them would recover just by chance. That doesn't mean we should start a massive holocaust of caprines.

However, even putting aside anecdotes, there were good reasons to believe the HCQ regimen might work. And given the seriousness of this disease and the desperation of those trying to save lives, it's understandable that doctors began using it for critically ill patients and scientists began researching its efficacy.

Why Trump became fixated on it is equally understandable. Trump has been looking for a quick fix to this crisis since Day One. Denial failed. Closing off (some) travel to China failed. A vaccine is months if not years away. So HCQ offered him what he wanted -- a way to fix this problem without the hard work, tough choices and sacrifice of stay-at-home orders, masks, isolation and quarantine. So eager were they to adopt the quick fix, the Administration made plans to distribute millions of doses of this unproven drug in lieu of taking more concrete steps to address the crisis.[efn_note]Although the claim that Trump stands to profit off HCQ sales does not appear to hold much water.[/efn_note]

This is also why certain fringe corners of the internet became fixated on it. There has arisen a subset of the COVID Truthers that I'm calling HCQ Truthers: people who believe that HCQ isn't just something that may save some lives but is, in fact, a miracle cure that it's only being held back so that...well, take your pick. So that Democrats can wreck the economy. So that Bill Gates can inject us with tracking devices. So that we can clear off the Social Security rolls. And this isn't just a US phenomenon nor is it all about Trump. Overseas friends tell me that COVID trutherism in general and HCQ trutherism in particular have arisen all over the Western World.

It's no accident that the HCQ Truthers seem to share a great deal of headspace with the anti-Vaxxers. It fills the same needs

In both cases, the idea was started by flawed studies. The initial studies out of China and France that indicated HCQ worked were heavily criticized for methodological errors (although note that neither claimed it was a miracle cure). Since then, larger studies have shown no effect.

HCQ trutherism offers an explanation for tragedy beyond the random cruelty of nature. Just as anti-vaxxers don't want to believe that sometimes autism just happens, HCQ Truthers don't want to believe that sometimes nature just releases awful epidemics on us. It's more comforting, in some ways, to think that bad happenings are all part of a plan by shadowy forces.

There is, however, another crazy side that doesn't get as much attention because their crazy is a bit more subtle. These are the people who have decided that, since Trump is touting the HCQ treatment, it must not work. It can not work. It can not be allowed to work. There is an undisguised glee when studies show that HCQ does not work and a willingness to blame HCQ shortages on Trump and only Trump.[efn_note]Not to mention the odd fish tank cleaner poisoning that has nothing to do with him.[/efn_note]

In between the two camps are everyone else: scientists, doctors and ordinary folk who just want to know whether this thing works or not, politics and conspiracy theories be damned. Well, last week, we got a big indication that it does not. A massive study out of the Lancet concluded that the HCQ regimen has no measurable positive effect. In fact, death rates were higher for those who took the regimen, likely due to heart arrhythmias induced by the drug.

So is the debate over? Can we move on from HCQ? Not quite.

First of all, the study is a retrospective study, looking backward at nearly 100,000 cases over the last four months. That's a massive sample that allows one to correct for potential confounding factors. But it's not a double-blind trial, so there may be certain biases that can not be avoided. In response to the publication, a group doing a controlled study unblinded some of their data (that is, they let an independent group look up who was getting the actual HCQ and who was getting a placebo). It did not show enough of a safety concern to warrant ending the study.

It's also worth noting that because this is an unproven therapy, it is usually being used on only the sickest patients (the odd President of the United States aside). It's possible earlier use of the drug, when the body is not already at war with itself, could help.

With those caveats in mind, however, this study at least makes it clear that HCQ is not the miracle cure some fringe corners of the internet are pretending it is. And it should make doctors hesitant in giving to people who already have heart issues.

As you can imagine, this has only fed the twin camps of derangement. The truther arguments tend to fall into the usual holes that truther theories do:

"How can this be a four-month study when we only learned about COVID in January!" The HCQ protocol started being used almost immediately because of previous research on coronaviruses.

"How come all of the sudden this safe medicine that people use all the time is dangerous?!" The side effects of HCQ have been well known for years and have always required consideration and management. They may be showing up more strongly here because it is being given to patients whose bodies are already under extreme stress. Also, azithromycin may amplify some of those side effects.

"They just hate Trump." Not everything is about Donald Trump. If it turned out that kissing Donald Trump's giant orange backside cured COVID, scientists would be the first ones telling people to line up and use chapstick.

The other camp's response has ranged from undisguised glee -- that is, joy at the idea that we won't be saving lives cheaply -- to bizarre claims that Trump should be charged with crimes for touting this unproven therapy.

(A perfect illustration of the dementia: former FDA Head Scott Gottlieb -- who has been a Godsend for objective analysis during the pandemic -- tweeted out the results of the RECOVERY unblinding yesterday morning and noted that it showed no increased safety risk. He was immediately dogpiled by one side insisting he was trying to conceal the miracle cure of HCQ and the other insisting he is a Trumpist doing the Orange Man's dirty work.)

In the end, the lunatics do not matter. Whether HCQ works or not, whether it is used or not, will be mostly determined by doctors and will mostly be based on the evidence we have in front of us. If HCQ fails -- and it's not looking good -- my only response will be massive disappointment. Had HCQ worked, it would have been a gift from the heavens. It is a well-known, well-studied drug that can be manufactured cheaply in bulk. Had it worked, we could have saved thousands of lives, prevented hundreds of thousands of long-term injuries and saved trillions of dollars. That it doesn't appear to work -- certainly not miraculously -- is not entirely unexpected but is also a tragedy.

{C1} The Christian Science Monitor looks at 1918 and how sports handled that pandemic, and the role it played in giving rise to college football.

"That's really what started the big boom of college football in the 1920s," said Jeremy Swick, historian at the College Football Hall of Fame. "People were ready. They were back from war. They wanted to play football again. There weren't as many restrictions about going out. You could enroll back in school pretty easily. You see a great level of talent come back into the atmosphere. There's new money. It started to get to the roar of the Roaring '20s and that's when you see the stadiums arm race. Who can build the biggest and baddest stadium?"

{C2} During times of rapid change, social science is supposed to be able to help lead the way or at least decipher what is going on. Or maybe not...

But while Willer, Van Bavel, and their colleagues were putting together their paper, another team of researchers put together their own, entirely opposite, call to arms: a plea, in the face of an avalanche of behavioral science research on COVID-19, for psychology researchers to have some humility. This paper—currently published online in draft format and seeding avid debates on social media—argues that much of psychological research is nowhere near the point of being ready to help in a crisis. Instead, it sketches out an “evidence readiness” framework to help people determine when the field will be.

{C3} There is a related story about AI - which is predisposed towards tracking slow change over time - is having trouble keeping up.

{C4} The Covid-19 does not bode well for higher education is not news. They may have a lot of difficulty opening up (and maybe shouldn't). An added wrinkle is kids taking a gap year, which is potentially a problem because those most able to pay may be least likely to attend.

{C5} People who can see the faults with abstinence only education fail to see how that logic (We shouldn't give guidance to people doing things we would rather they not do in the first place). Emily Oster argues that the extreme message of public health advocates to Just Stay Home is counterproductive.

When people are advised that one very difficult behavior is safe, and (implicitly or not) that everything else is risky, they may crack under the pressure, or throw up their hands. That is, if people think all activities (other than staying home) are equally risky, they figure they might as well do those that are more fun. If taking a walk at a six-foot distance from a friend puts me at very high risk, why not just have that friend and a bunch of others over for a barbecue? It’s more fun. This is an exaggeration, of course, but different activities carry very different risks, and conscientious civic leaders should actively help people choose among them.

{C6} A look at what canceling the football season will do to the little guys - non-power schools. Ironically, they may sustain less damage due to fewer financial obligations relying on the money that won't be coming in. Be that as it may, Fordham has disestablished its baseball program.

{C7} Bans on evictions and rental spikes could have the main effect of simply pushing out small investors, rather than protecting renters. In a more good-faith economy this would be less of an issue because landlords would work with tenants. Which some are, though I don't have too much faith about it being widespread.

{C8} Three cheers for Nick Saban. Football coaches are cultural leaders of a sort. One is about to become a senator in Alabama, even. What they do matters.

The American college experience for better or for worse revolves around the residency factor. We have turned college into a relatively safe place for young adults to the test the limits of freedom without suffering too many consequences. Better to miss a day of classes because you drank too much than to miss a day of an apprenticeship or job and get fired. College was cut short this semester because of COVID and colleges are freaking out about whether they can open up dorms in the fall. The dorms are big money makers and it is hard to justify huge tuition bucks for zoom lectures even for elite universities. Maybe especially for them. California State University announced that Fall 2020 is going to be largely online. My undergrad alma mater sent out an e-mail blast announcing their plan to reopen in the fall with "mostly" in person classes. The President admitted that the plan was a work in progress but it strikes me as a combination of common sense and extreme wishful thinking. The plan may include:

1. Staggered drop-off days to limit density as we return.

This sounds reasonable but only in a temporary way because eventually everyone will be back on campus, living in dorm rooms together, needing to use communal bathrooms and showers.

2. Students would be tested for COVID-19 on campus at least twice in the first 14 days.

There is nothing wrong with this as long as the testing is available. Our capacity for testing so far in this country has not been great.

3. Anyone experiencing symptoms would be tested immediately. Students who test positive would be cared for in a separate dormitory area where food would be brought to the room and where the student could still access classes remotely.

Nothing wrong here. Outbreaks of certain diseases are not unknown in the college setting. During my senior year, there was an outbreak of a rather nasty strain of gastroenteritis. Other universities have experienced meningitis outbreaks.

4. All students would take their temperature and report symptoms daily.

This one is also reasonable but is going to involve spying on students and coming up with a punishment mechanism. How will they make sure students are not lying?

5. We would also require that socializing be kept to a minimum in the beginning, with proper PPE (masks) and social distancing. As time went on, we would seek to open up more, and students could socialize and eat together in small groups.

I have no idea how they tend for this to happen and it sets of all my lawyer bells for carefully crafted language that attempts to answer a concern or question but also admits "we got nothing." Maybe today's students are more somber and sincere but you are going to have around 500 eighteen year olds who are away from their parents for the first time and another 1500 nineteen to twenty-one year olds who had their semester rudely interrupted and might now be reunited with boyfriends and girlfriends. Are they going to assign eating times for the dining hall and put up solo eating cubicles that get wiped down and disinfected after each use? Assign times to use laundry facilities in each dorm? Cancel the clubs? Cancel performances by the theatre, dance, and music departments?

I am sympathetic to my alma I love it but and realize that a lot of colleges and universities would take a real hit financially without residency. This includes universities with reasonable to very large endowments. Only the ones with hedge fund size endowments would not suffer but the last part of the plain sounds not fully thought out yet even if my college's current President admitted: "Life on campus will not look the same as it did pre-pandemic" The only way i see number 5 working is if requiring is read as "requiring."

Seems that the theory that Covid-19 can be spread by asymptomatic people has very shaky evidence in support of it. Turns out the case this assumption was made from was based on a single woman who infected 4 others. Researchers talked to the 4 patients, and they all said the patient 0 did not appear ill, but they could not speak to patient 0 at the time.

So they finally got to talk to her, and she said she was feeling ill, but powered through with the aid of modern pharmaceuticals.

Ten Second News

Today we couldn’t be happier to announce that Vox Media and New York Media are merging to create the leading independent modern media company. Our combined business will be called Vox Media and will serve hundreds of millions of audience members wherever they prefer to enjoy our work.

In a nation in turmoil, it's nice to have even a small bit of good news:

Representative Steve King of Iowa, the nine-term Republican with a history of racist comments who only recently became a party pariah, lost his bid for renomination early Wednesday, one of the biggest defeats of the 2020 primary season in any state.

In a five-way primary, Mr. King was defeated by Randy Feenstra, a state senator, who had the backing of mainstream state and national Republicans who found Mr. King an embarrassment and, crucially, a threat to a safe Republican seat if he were on the ballot in November.

The defeat was most likely the final political blow to one of the nation’s most divisive elected officials, whose insults of undocumented immigrants foretold the messaging of President Trump, and whose flirtations with extremism led him far from rural Iowa, to meetings with anti-Muslim crusaders in Europe and an endorsement of a Toronto mayoral candidate with neo-Nazi ties.

King, you may remember, was stripped of his committee assignments last year when he defended white supremacism. Two years ago, he almost lost his Congressional seat in the general. That is, a seat that Republicans have held since 1986, usually win by double digits and a district Trump carried by a whopping 27 points almost came within a point or two of voting in a Democrat. That's how repulsive King had gotten.

Good riddance to bad rubbish. Enjoy retirement, Congressman. Oops. Sorry. In January, it will be former Congressman.

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From the Daily Mail: Deadliest city in America plans to disband its entire police force and fire 270 cops to deal with budget crunch

The deadliest city in America is disbanding its entire police force and firing 270 cops in an effort to deal with a massive budget crunch.

...

The police union says the force, which will not be unionized, is simply a union-busting move that is meant to get out of contracts with current employees. Any city officers that are hired to the county force will lose the benefits they had on the unionized force.

Oak Park police say they are investigating “suspicious circumstances” after two attorneys — including one who served as a hearing officer in several high-profile Chicago police misconduct cases — were found dead in their home in the western suburb Monday night.

Officers were called about 7:30 p.m. for a well-being check inside a home in the 500 block of Fair Oaks Avenue, near Chicago Avenue, and found the couple dead inside, Oak Park spokesman David Powers said in an emailed statement. Authorities later identified them as Thomas E. Johnson, 69, and Leslie Ann Jones, 67, husband and wife attorneys who worked in Chicago.

The preliminary report from an independent autopsy ordered by George Floyd's family says the 46 year old man's death was "caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain".

The independent examiners found that weight on the back, handcuffs and positioning were contributory factors because they impaired the ability of Floyd's diaphragm to function, according to the report.

Dr. Michael Baden and the University of Michigan Medical School's director of autopsy and forensic services, Dr. Allecia Wilson, handled the examination, according to family attorney Ben Crump.

Baden, who was New York's medical examiner in 1978 and 1979, had previously performed independent autopsies on Eric Garner, who was killed by a police officer in Staten Island, New York, in 2014 and Michael Brown, who was shot by officers in Ferguson, Missouri, that same year.

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Oddly, the video was dropped by an attorney friend the men, because he thought it would exonerate them. He assumed when people saw Aubrey turn and try to defend himself, everyone would see what they did: a dangerous animal needing to be put down.